Reddit reviews Pocket Medicine: The Massachusetts General Hospital Handbook of Internal Medicine (Pocket Notebook) Fifth Edition

Disclaimer: Some of this advice I consider 'no duh' but I figured I'd say it just in case.

On shelf exams:

1. Yes, all of the case files/blue prints/UW/OME are good resources.
   
   
2. Emma Holiday's clerkship review videos are all excellent.
   
   
3. If you're a DO peep and have to take COMAT shelf exams, go ahead and shell out for the COMBANK exam specific question banks. Some of those questions will show up verbatim on exam day.
   
   
4. If you haven't already, download the mobile app for UWorld, Kaplan, and/or Combank. Some of my preceptors actively encouraged me to do questions while they were charting and would jump in to work through some with me when we had downtime in the clinic.
   
   On electronic devices and apps:
   
   
5. I got an iPad mini at the start of the year and loved having it but it is not at all necessary.
   
   
6. Some people recommended starting off each rotation by saying to your attending/upper level "I have electronic textbooks/apps, is it okay if I use them while I'm with you?" (so that you're not accused of texting or being on facebook 24/7) but that was honestly never an issue for me.
   
   
7. Good apps to have: MDCalc (free), ASCVD Risk Estimator (free), Nodule (free), UpToDate (some hospitals will give you an institutional log-in if your school doesn't), GoodRx (free), Epocrates (free-ish), and palmEM ($10 but a decent investment if you're an EM gunner).
   
   On boards:
   
   
8. The best time to sign up for your Step 2 CS/Level 2 PE is the second you get authorization from your school. Those spots go quick.
   
   
9. DO peeps: the NBOME has affiliate deals with hotels for reduced rates. You can find the links and info here. Yes, this whole thing is stupid expensive but you might as well take advantage of what little silver lining there is.
   
   
10. If you need disability accommodations (extra time, electronic stethoscope), start those applications NOW. There's a lot of little parts to them (I have no idea why they needed a letter from my dean but whateva) and the committee to approve those things only meets once a month (so if your application arrives after they've met for the month, you're basically going to be waiting two months to hear back from them.) Anyone who needs help with this or has questions can feel free to message me.
    
    
11. I have no idea when the best time to take the written tests are. It will depend on your individual schedule and goals.
    
    On wards:
    
    
12. You'll probably get a lot of (pocket) book recommendations. You do not need to buy every book recommended to you. The two I found useful this year were The Massachusetts General Hospital Handbook of Internal Medicine and Clinician's Guide to Laboratory Medicine.
    
    
13. Pre-round on your patients. Some people like the scutsheets from medfools but I found them a little constrictive once I knew what I was doing. If you are supposed to write an H&P, SOAP note, discharge summary, etc and your school didn't teach you, google it. There are a ton of decent guides out there.
    
    
14. You are there until your attending/resident explicitly tells you to go home. Your ability to ask to leave will depend on the culture +/- your gumption.
    
    
15. NEVER LIE. If you did not see the patient, you didn't see the patient.
    
    
16. Some people will tell you to always say "I don't know but I'll look that up and get back to you!" Honestly, my residents would roll their eyes and tell us to guess.
    
    
17. If you don't know where something minor is (cups, ice machine, extra pillows, extra blankets) ask to be shown so that the next time you can get it yourself. Yes, you will absolutely be asked to fetch people coffee, return that empty bed to the floor, help someone to the bathroom, grab an extra blanket, etc. Most people tend to think more highly of those that do this without groaning.
    
    
18. If you feel like you had a good time with a preceptor and they would be a useful addition to your application, consider asking them for a letter of rec at/near the end of your rotation. You don't have to apply every letter you upload for programs to see so there's really no harm in collecting more than three (but do not ask every single persona for a letter of rec - doctors talk about students, especially the ones they find sketchy or annoying).
    
    On evaluations:
    
    
19. I know the majority of this subreddit moans about how subjective and unfair evaluations are but my one point of pride this year is that every single preceptor gave me an honors level eval.
    
    
20. Yes, I am a woman. No, I am not attractive. I'm slightly below average to fair with a moderate amount of chunkiness.
    
    
21. Do anything you can to make your resident's life easier.
    
    
22. Be polite to every nurse, tech, nurse practitioner, receptionist, and office manager. Make small talk. Yes, I know you've heard this a million times. Yes, I did bake things and bring in boxes of donuts. Yes, you can call me a suck-up. I was still blown away when one office manager said to me "We really liked having you. None of the other students talk to us."
    
    
23. Be enthusiastic. Ask questions. Even if you're not interested in that specialty, you can still ask what applying to residency was like (for young doctors) or how things have changed since they started (for old doctors).
    
    
24. This is not the year to have debates. Some of my classmates got into arguments on guns, the president, or religion; sometimes the attending respected their chutzpah and sometimes they didn't. I preferred to play it safe.
    
    
25. Keep in mind every annoying social media professionalism lecture you've ever gotten. Techs, nurses, nurse practitioners, and more all wanted to add me as a friend on Facebook. Yes, you can choose not to add them (smartest move tbh) but I gave in after getting point-blank asked "why didn't you add me?!" Facebook is for that "magical feeling of wonder and joy" when you catch a baby for the first time or the "humbling awe" you felt when you first retracted the colon. Nothing else.
    
    
26. If you are sharing a rotation with NP student or PA student, treat them like another medical student and be cordial. Don't try to pimp them. Don't get into pissing contests. Doctors are expected to be leaders; now is your chance to actually demonstrate that.
    
    
    
    In general: Third year can be frustrating because it varies so wildly. Some of you will have cush rotations where you're done at 10:30 am. Some of you will enter the hospital before the sun rises and leave when it is setting. Some of you will feel like you're shadowing again. Some of you will be treated like interns (and abused because you don't have work-hour restrictions). Some will find out the thing they thought they wanted they hate and others will find out the thing they want is beyond their reach (because of family obligations, board scores, or another thing all together). Some of you will deliver 80 babies a month and some of you won't even do a Pap smear. Every hospital has a different culture; just be polite, professional, and let yourself be immersed. You'll pick it up soon enough.
    
    TL; DR: Life is short. Be excellent to each other.
    
    EDIT: Added some stuff, found out there's a size limit on comments, made a second part.

Wikipedia is a good place to start for inarguable content like basic physiology, pathology, etc. Provincial treatment standards are often in the form of various (often conflicting) medical society guidelines. For Internal Medicine specifically (which is of course most of medicine in the end), Harrison's Principles of Internal Medicine (digital version available) is the "next level" and "bible" of internal medical education and for treatment principles. A concise, well-sourced reference like the Washington Manual or (IMHO better) The Sabatine Mass Gen handbook are great. Uptodate is great but expensive.

I'm an Internal Med hospitalist (U.S.) and also in the field of General Preventive Medicine and Public Health.

I'll echo what's already been said, don't waste money on an expensive suture kit. [These] (http://www.ethicon.com/healthcare-professionals/education/student-knot-tying-kit) are always on backorder but keep checking and eventually they get more... they are free.

The only thing I can't imagine doing without during my clinical (and something your program won't require) was [Pocket Medicine] (https://www.amazon.com/Pocket-Medicine-Massachusetts-Hospital-Handbook/dp/1451193785/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1478036929&sr=8-1&keywords=pocket+medicine). I am convinced this book alone can get you through 90% of your rotations... It was the only pocket reference I carried in my white coat for every rotation. It's the only pocket reference I STILL carry from school. I think a new version is coming sometime this month so you could wait for that!

What I started with: Stethoscope, sphygmomanometer or a sphygmomanometer for the lazy, pulse oximeter, reflex hammer, tuning fork, a pen light, notebook, Maxwell, pocket medicine, clipboard, 48 pens (of which I somehow only have 2 left), and finally a pack of decoy pens to hand out to people that need to "borrow" a pen but never give back.


Seriously where do all of my pens go??? It turns out half them went into my gf's bag x(.

What I was given or picked up along the way: scalpel, needle drivers, tweezers, scissors, various types of vicryl, bandages, gauze, alcohol wipes, surgical lube (that I took from the hospital when no one was looking ;) ), and a pocket CPR mask. I took a bunch of normal saline and IV kits as well but they don't fit in the bag.

That's really probably a lot to do/ask, especially before next week. Just as or more important, is to have the right resources to get them quickly. There are a few great medical calculator apps, but just about as fast is getting the "Purple Book" (formerly the green, then red, then blue book) for internal medicine and [Tarascon's Internal Medicine and Critical Care pocket books](Tarascon Internal Medicine & Critical Care Pocketbook). Between those two, I've only needed to look up extra calculators/equations for fairly obscure things.

The Purple book runs $40-60 usually, but I got my Tarascon for like $20-30 a couple years ago. For some reason it's more expensive than rent/a week of medical school/etc at about $485. No idea why.

*edit formatting

http://www.amazon.com/Pocket-Medicine-Massachusetts-Hospital-Handbook/dp/1451193785?ie=UTF8&keywords=pocket%20medicine&qid=1463463929&ref_=sr_1_1&sr=8-1

Could not recommend it more. It has been invaluable so far on my inpatient medicine rotation.